Port Concessionaire; Five Star Logistics Terminal has expressed readiness to partner with the Tin Can port chapter of the Association of Nigeria Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA) on security and eliminating influx of unwanted persons into the terminal.
General Manager of Five Star Logistics Terminal at Tin Can port, Mr. Wolfgang Schneider disclosed this at a meeting with the Chairman of ANLCA at Tin Can, Prince Segun Oduntan and his executives on Tuesday.
Schneider pleaded with the licensed customs agents for patience and understanding on the recent hike in port charges, saying that the terminal had no choice but to increase its charges because it was badly hit by the FOREX policy of the Federal Government.
He charged Oduntan to refresh the list of ANLCA members at Tin Can Port, noting that some hoodlums have been impersonating membership of the association to extort money from stakeholders.
The terminal operator assured the ANLCA chairman that Five Star Logistics is ready to issue fresh electronic gate passes which will be handed over to ANLCA to give to only her genuine members who will have access to the terminal.
"Few months ago, the orderly manner in this terminal has been lost completely, some of your so-called colleagues who are youngsters are just so unprofessional, they are always cheating, scheming and causing palavar, sometimes we had to call in the police"
"A lot of people are coming to me and displaying the ANLCA card, claiming to be your members and asking for freebies, I think you have to stamp your foot down on who and who are your members by refreshing your membership list"
"We are also going to protect ourselves by giving our gate passes to your association for only people who are licensed to operate at the port. Apparently we made a mistake in the past to give it out free of charge" he said
Schneider also said that Five Star Logistics Terminal will assist the customs service by creating a separate gate for them into the cargo examination area so that they could control influx of agents into the area.
He promised to work with the Oduntan -ANLCA to achieve business success at the port, even as he promised to disseminate timely information to the association, especially on policy issues.
"We will send to you in advance whatever plans we are having so that you would be able to communicate to your customers"
Responding, Chairman of Tin Can Chapter of ANLCA, Prince Segun Oduntan said that ANLCA is coming out with electronic identity cards which will be issued to only genuine members of the association.
He warned the terminal operator not to deal with anyone on behalf of ANLCA at Tin Can other than those recommended by his executives and forwarded to the terminals.
Oduntan made a passionate appeal for the terminal to create a space for the association to establish its help desk where issues could be channelled and resolved immediately.
"Our security identity cards will start coming out from next week, if anybody says he is a member of our association, he has to show evidence for it. ANLCA is a corporate association different from all others and we are going to put a lot of security measures in place for you to identify our members"
"Before the week runs out, we will make a presentation to you on those that will represent us in this terminal"
"Anybody that we cannot identify, let the law take its course" he said
He assured the Five Star Logistics Terminal team that ANLCA is ready to cooperate with them to transform the terminal and attract more cargoes to it.
Oduntan however charged the concessionaire to address complaints bordering on poor services to agents, especially issues of operational storms and machinery defects.
"You can be the number one terminal operator if you work with us, your cargo volume will increase, we will attract more cargoes to your terminal, more of bulk cargoes and not vehicles"
"We would open our line of communication, whatever issues arising from your terminal should be communicated to us before hand. Our customers want to hear from us before such policies are rolled out", he stressed.
Also speaking at the meeting, Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Five Star Logistics Terminal, Mr. Gabriel Jacobs stressed that security and development are inseparable, adding that the concessionaire will sanitise its terminal to benefit of stakeholders.
He urged aggrieved agents to meet the customers care manager of the terminal at any time instead of resulting to rioting. He said there was no need for any clash between police, agents and terminal operators and that the era of disagreements is over.
He harped on the need for Agents to always be on their reflective jackets anytime they are coming for examination at the terminal.
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